Blooming!

Ruth is setting today's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like to see a riot of flowers on the blog this week!

Irises are one of my mum’s favourite flowers so when I saw this stamp at a bargain price I couldn’t resist getting it even though I keep telling myself I have enough floral stamps! It’s a lovely big stamp, almost 6 inches tall if you use the full length of the stem.

I stamped in a very light green ink so I could do a spot of “no line” colouring, using simple masking to add two flowers, and then coloured using a combination of Copics and coloured pencils.

The little dots were stamped with gold ink and then I used a gel pen and a glitter pen to add a few extras and deepen the gold.

Stamps:
Iris (Bee Crafty)
Dots from Believe in Unicorns (Visible Image)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Willow)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate, Galaxy Gold)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Gold gel pen
Gold Spica glitter pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Bingo!

The lovely Dawn is setting our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and in a nod to her mum's love of bingo she's given us a board to choose our elements from. You can go up, down or diagonal with your line or even try to get a full house!

I managed the middle row and bottom left to top right diagonal. 

The onesie is stamped on watercolour paper so that's something different than the card base and has a slight textile texture which seemed appropriate. Die cuts for the circles, the tiny heart and stars as well as baby's initial. That's the middle row covered!

It's a clean and simple card and the onesie is heat embossed on the watercolour paper so that's the diagonal covered too!

Stamps:
Little One (Altenew)

Paper:
Bristol board
Watercolour

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Salty Ocean)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Detail white embossing powder
Fine Frames circle die (Altenew)
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Font 1 dies (Spellbinder)
Mega Flake (Indigo Blu - Sheffield Steel)
Corner Chomper

Here's the bingo board, we'd love you to come and join us at DCM to see what you make of these elements! There’s a great range of inspiration on display from the team, too!

April elements

Nat has chosen the inspiration picture for the Daring Cardmaker's first challenge for a new month. As usual, just choose at least three elements from the inspiration to kickstart your card.

I chose champagne glasses, the pretty green of the frame, the crackle texture behind the sign and a sentiment in mixed fonts.

I smooshed Distress Oxide ink onto the card with a piece of acetate and stamped the glasses over it once dry. I lifted a bit of the colour inside the glasses using a paintbrush and water, masked them and stamped the crackle texture. The champagne is shimmery Perfect Pearls and I used Wink of Stella pen on the rest of the glass so it has subtle sparkle too.

Stamps:
Champagne Celebration (Crafters Companion)
Crackleglaze background (Indigo Blu)
Putting on the Ritz (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide (Cracked Pistachio)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Smokey Grey)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Sunflower Sparkle)
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
Corner Chomper

Here’s the mood board if you’d like to join in with us over at DCM. Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain - March

It’s reveal day for the Card Chain Challenge for March. My card has gone to Arlene in California this time.

From the options on offer this month, I used the themes of flowers AND spring by choosing a spring flower! I’ve loosely followed the sketch as well. I decided to let the wording on the stamp stand in place of a sentiment so it’s an “all purpose” card. Since the product/technique option included stamping it was pretty much inevitable my card would fit that option as well!

It's a one layer card since it was going trans-Atlantic, I just masked the flower and used low tack tape to define the edges of the coloured strip before inking. I couldn't resist adding sequins for the three small flowers of the sketch though so it did get a piece of bubble wrap in the envelope!

Stamps:
Magnolia by Stampendous

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Twisted Citron)

Other:
Copic markers 
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper 
Sequins 
Gold gel pen

There are still a few days left to sign up for the April chain if you fancy joining in.

Thanks for stopping by!

Raspberries for Mum

Nat is setting the challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like us to celebrate special women. It might be a card for Mother's Day but equally it could be something to mark a special friendship, an acknowledgement of an inspirational woman or any other way you can dream up to celebrate special women.

I made a card for my mum featuring a favourite fruit. Right from being a little girl we always had raspberries in the garden and once I was old enough to understand that they squash easily I helped Mum with the picking!

Stamps:
Sun Ripened (Stampin' Up! retired)
Happy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol Board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Stonewashed)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Fine Frames die by Altenew
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Silver Leaf)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Oak leaves

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a favourite at the Retro Rubber Challenge a while back and so I'm joining them as a guest designer on the current challenge which has just gone live here.

The idea at RR is to show some love to stamps that are at least a year old so it's a great chance to look back over your stash for toys you might have ignored for a while!

It's a tic-tac-toe challenge this time, see the end of this post or visit the Retro Rubber blog for the grid if you'd like to play along! I chose the middle column of the grid: sparkle-leaves-heat embossing.

I embossed the sentiment with a detail white powder and then smooshed on some ink using a piece of acetate. The oak branch stamp has acorns on it which means it always seems to be an autumnal kind of image but I thought that if I coloured the leaves green and only used part of the image it would be more suited to spring and summer. The sparkle comes courtesy of my "go to" embellishment when I want just a touch of glitz: nail art gems.

Stamps:
Oak Branch (Beeswax Stamps - I've had mine since 2012)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Versamark by Tsukineko
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Detail white embossing powder
Copic markers
White paint pen by Posca
Fine frames die by Altenew
Nail art gems
Pinflair glue gel
Corner Chomper

Here's the tic-tac-toe grid, why not head over and play?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Recycle it

The lovely Svenja is setting our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like us to do a bit of recycling. It could be a failed project that you've given a makeover to turn it into something fabulous or it could be bits and pieces you rescue from the recyle bin and put to good crafty use.

I used three bits of "recylcing" here: a magazine page to make a print using a gel plate, my sentiment word is cut from a piece of tomato paste tube and I used a "stencil" that is actually a piece of plastic that came on a computer keyboard as a protector while in transit.

If you have a gel plate and haven't played with the magazine transfer technique it's a fun thing to do - this video is a good introduction if you want to have a play! Premium weight copy paper seems to make a good surface to pull prints and it's not expensive so it doesn't feel too awful if something doesn't work!

I used a white pencil to add some gentle highlighting and a charcoal pencil for some grounding shadows.

This is for a friend with whom we enjoy the odd wine tasting!

Supplies:
Page from Decanter magazine
Gelli plate
Acrylic paints (black, yellow green, turquoise)
White pencil
Charcoal pencil
Happy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)
Tomato paste tube
Keyboard “stencil”
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Mowed Grass) 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Black Copic marker
Corner chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Stitch it

Shabneez is setting this week’s challenge over st Daring Cardmakers and she’d like to see some stitching - hand or machine, real or faux, a little or a lot!

I needed a card for a friend’s daughter who’s turning 13. I dithered over whether unicorns might be too “young” but decided this realistic one would be OK (yes, I know it’s not really possible to have a realistic unicorn, I suppose I mean in the sense of not cutesy cartoonish!). I’ve added a little bit of stitching with silver thread to attach the banner element of the sentiment, stitched the embellishments into place and added a faux stiched border with a tracing wheel and a silver gel pen.

The background piece is from a stash I made a while back with a shaving foam technique.

Stamps:
Believe in Unicorns (Visible Image)
Happy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts - die is also in the set)

Paper:
Bristol board
Copy paper
Silver glitter

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Delicata by Tsukineko (Silvery Shimmer)
Distress reinkers (for the shaving foam background)

Other:
Detail white embossing powder
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Silver thread
Tracing wheel
Silver gel pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Mad March hare

It’s my turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week and I’d like you to be inspired by the phrase “mad March hare”. Take a look at the DCM blog for some suggestions and to see what my lovely teamies made of it.

I found some fabulous downloadable colouring pages in this Etsy shop that’s run by a tattoo artist who has a beautiful illustration style - she has several animals and birds that would be perfect for the adult colouring craze and I think they’d be good for the kids too, maybe a family colouring session?!

I spent some happy time with my Copics and then just cropped the image to the size of the card front and added a simple die cut sentiment. I added some two-way glue to the moon with a Quickie glue pen and used metal flakes over it once tacky then added some more sketchy lines with a silver gel pen (that don't show up well on the photo, I'm afraid, maybe because the metal leaf is so reflective). The flower centres are dots of gold 3D paint.

I remember hearing a documentary about hares on Radio 4 that used Maddy Prior singing The Fabled Hare in its soundtrack. The final verse says

"I'm a symbol of endurance
Running through the mists of time"

I really hope that's true, hares are such magnificent creatures and with the recent news that a strain of myxomatosis has crossed from rabbits to hares, their future might not be quite so assured. 

Supplies:
Hare colouring page
Copic markers
Gold gel pen
Silver gel pen
Quickie glue pen
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu (Sheffield Steel)
Gold 3D paint
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain - February

It's time for the reveal of the Card Chain Challenge for February! As usual we had lots of options to play with - I chose the theme of birds and the colours (honey, raspberry,  strawberry). My card has gone to Gail who does a fabulous job each month as part of the team who keep us all organised!

I inked up my circular Gel Press Petite rather like a big stamp (I will get round to using it some other way soon!) and then sponged extra ink over the impression to blend a bit more. I thought the colour combination was quite reminiscent of a sunset.

I added tiny speckles and "twinkles" in faint colour by stamping off on scrap first.

Stamps:
Spring Bird (Bloom Art Stamps)
Believe in Unicorns (Visible Image)

Paper:
Bristol board:

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Wild Honey, Picked Raspberry)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Watermelon)

Other:
Gel Press Petities
Charcoal pencil
Black fineliner
Hello die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Pinflair gel glue

There are a still a few days to sign up if you'd like to be a link in the next chain - make and send one card to the person "up chain", receive a card from the next link!